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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

Start the Week: Protest and patriotism

Protest and patriotism

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Protest and patriotism

Jackie Kay, Caroline Lucas and Simon Heffer with Adam Rutherford.

The poet Jackie Kay, Green MP Caroline Lucas and journalist Simon Heffer explore how culture, protest and tradition shape society, with Adam Rutherford.

May Day is the title of Jackie Kay’s new collection. The former Makar of Scotland explores a history of political protest, and the cultural influencers of the past, from Rabbie Burns to the poet Audre Lorde and Paul Robeson. She also celebrates the lives and activism of her parents, and grieves for their loss. 

The Green MP Caroline Lucas wants to reclaim and rewrite England’s national story in her book, Another England. By exploring its radical tradition through its literary heritage she seeks to foreground the diverse writers and poets who spoke of a shared sense of identity and purpose, and a deep-rooted commitment to the natural world. 

The journalist and writer Simon Heffer looks back a century to the interwar period, a time of radical transformation of British society post the Great War, as many of the old attitudes started to be swept away. In his history, Sing As We Go, he shows how the culture of the time both shaped and reflected these changes.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Protest and patriotism

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